Ned Duane Heindel, 85, Howard S. Bunn Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Lehigh (Obituary Brought to You by Heintzelman Funeral Home)

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Ned Duane Heindel (1937 – 2023)

Ned Duane Heindel, age 85, Howard S. Bunn Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Distinguished Senior Research Scientist of Lehigh University, died June 27 at his home. He was the beloved husband of Linda (Heefner) Heindel, to whom he had been married for 63 years. Ned was born on Sept. 4, 1937 in Red Lion, Pa., to Penrose Horace Heindel and Dorothy Mae (Strayer) Heindel. Ned graduated from Red Lion High School and pursued the field of chemistry at Lebanon Valley College (BS), University of Delaware (PhD, chemistry) and during a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University. He held successive teaching appointments at the University of Delaware (Wilmington campus), Ohio University, Marshall University and Lehigh University. From 1966 till 2018 he rose through the Lehigh ranks, completing 52 years of teaching/research service to the institution before his retirement in 2018, when he transitioned to Distinguished Senior Research Scientist; a status he maintained till his death. From 1971 to 2000, Ned was a Visiting Professor of Radiation Oncology at Drexel University School of Medicine (formerly Hahnemann Medical School), Philadelphia, and from 1979 to 1986 he served as Visiting Lecturer in Nuclear Medicine Imaging at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md. He lectured on tumor imaging with radio-nuclides and served as research supervisor for Lehigh and Hahnemann graduate students doing research in diagnostic nuclear medicine. He published more than 300 journal articles on organic and medicinal chemistry in numerous chemical and biomedical journals, obtained 20 patents and graduated 40 doctoral students and 168 M.S. students. He served as Director of Lehigh’s Center for Health Sciences from 1981 to 1988, and in 1991 he initiated Lehigh’s Distance Education program by transmitting courses for an M.S. in pharmaceutical chemistry by satellite TV, and later by online video. Students from 51 companies enrolled, and more than 120 completed the program. Ned served on the boards of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Council for Chemical Research, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry-American Division, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Science History Institute, the Chemical Sciences Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences, the Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute and CentCom Advertising. He was President of the American Chemical Society in 1994. His honors included: Lebanon Valley College, D.Sc. (Hon.); Albright College, D.Sc. (Hon.); the Ben Franklin Partnership Award for Corporate Assistance to Start-Ups; and the 2011 Hillman Award for Service to Lehigh University. Imbued with an avocational interest in history, Heindel published 16 articles and five books on topics of regional and chemical history. His book Hexenkopf: History, Healing and Hexerei went through three editions and five printings. He also wrote Iron, Armor, and Adolescents: A History of Redington and the Carter Junior Republic, The 1863 Diary of Beates R. Swift and (with Robert D. Rapp) The Nineteenth-Century Horse Doctor. A lifelong interest in patent medicines resulted in Medicine, Music, and ‘Money’ Munyon, a biography of a colorful Pennsylvania patent medicine showman. For more than 45 years, Ned was a frequent contributor of local history articles to Pennsylvania Folklife magazine and to The Pastfinder, the newsletter for the Williams Township Historical Society. Ned served several historical organizations, including the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society, the Science History Institute, the Williams Township Historical Society and the Division of the History of Chemistry (ACS). In 2020, Ned and his wife Linda donated the Hexenkopf Ridge, the Hexenkopf Rock and the surrounding 77 acres to Northampton County for a nature preserve.